Major Alcohol Association Briefs Congress On Marijuana Legalization

One of the nation’s leading alcohol industry associations held a briefing on Capitol Hill on Friday to tell lawmakers and congressional staffers about its position on marijuana legalization.

The Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) became the first major alcohol association to call for the end of federal cannabis prohibition in July. At last week’s briefing, the group reaffirmed that stance, emphasizing that the federal government should allow states to legalize marijuana without interference.

A representative from the group also suggested that the cannabis market could take lessons from the current regulatory approach to alcohol, including when it comes to distribution and quality control testing, one person who attended the event told Marijuana Moment. There was also a conversation about developing technologies to detect active impairment from marijuana on the roads.

In a one-sheet overview distributed at the briefing, WSWA wrote that the industry’s regulatory structure “should ensure product safety, discourage underage access, create an effective tax collection regime and encourage innovation and choice for consumers, while at the same time eliminating diversion of cannabis to other states.”

WSWA then outlines a series of recommendations—from implementing impaired driving standards to testing product formulas.

Read WSWA’s full list of marijuana policy recommendations below:

Via WSWA.

For the most part, the recommendations align with existing regulatory models in legal states. Where the alcohol and marijuana industries might have disagreements, though, is with WSWA’s opposition to vertical integration, under which one company manages more than one area of production and distribution that could otherwise be delegated to other businesses.

The alcohol industry generally operates under a three-tier system in the U.S., through which separate operators handle production, wholesaling and retail sales. Some have suggested that the alcohol industry wants the cannabis market to adopt its approach so that existing businesses like beer, wind and liquor distributors can profit from legal marijuana as well. But Dawson Hobbs, WSWA senior vice president of government relations, denied as much when the association made its initial announcement earlier this year.

“No, what we’re talking about is just creating a pathway for states to have federal recognition of legalization by enacting appropriate regulation that creates a safe and reliable marketplace,” Hobbs said at the time.

Congress needs to come up with a solution for banking access by the marijuana industry, a top federal Treasury Department official said on Wednesday. And he hopes that will happen by 2020, if not sooner.

Joseph Otting, the comptroller of the currency, told reporters that lawmakers “have to act at the national level to legalize marijuana if they want those entities involved in that business to utilize the U.S. banking system,” according to PoliticoPro.

Cannabis businesses acting in compliance with state law face uncertainty when dealing with federally regulated financial institutions. And banks potentially risk being penalized for servicing those businesses, leading many to avoid the industry altogether.

“If I’m a betting person, I’m like 25-30 percent maybe next year, but I would hope by 2020 we can get this issue resolved,” said Otting, who was also recently assigned to double duty as acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

He previously called the existing situation “generally not healthy,” echoing comments made by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who said “it would be great if [the banking issue] could be clarified.”

Similarly, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has described the banking conflict as untenable. He said last year that his department was “reviewing the existing guidance,” referring to a 2014 Obama-era policy memo meant to provide direction for banks on how to service marijuana businesses.

“We do want to find a solution to make sure that businesses that have large access to cash have a way to get them into a depository institution for it to be safe,” he said.

Sen. Chuck Schumer Welcomes Major Cannabis Company To New York’s Hemp Industry

Canadian marijuana giant Canopy Growth Corporation will enter the nascent U.S. hemp industry by building a massive farming and production center in southern New York, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced on Monday.

Canopy has yet to finalize its plans for an exact location—a contract could be signed as soon as Monday, Schumer said—but the company could eventually support “up to 400 jobs” in hemp cultivation, processing and product manufacturing at what would be a “first of its kind” center for the just-legalized U.S. hemp industry, the senator said.

Once a key American crop—George Washington famously grew hemp at Mount Vernon, and there was a stand of hemp plants in northern Virginia where the Pentagon now stands—the U.S. now lags far behind other countries in hemp production, a result of the country’s broad outlawing of cannabis decades ago.

Eventually, Canopy plans to invest “between $100-$150 million” into a New York State-based industrial hemp farm, Schumer said, with other companies potentially drawn to the sector by such a prominent anchor business.

“Hemp is a very valuable product and a burgeoning crop here” in southern New York, said Schumer, offering a very brief remedial education in the plant for those present at a press conference he convened. “I’m not kidding when I say this, but hemp is everywhere.”

“This is going to be a major shot in the arm” for the area, he added.

“Hemp” is more of a legal than a botanical distinction. Under U.S. law, cannabis sativa with 0.3 percent or more THC is considered “marijuana” and falls under federal drug-control laws. Cannabis with less than 0.3 percent THC is considered industrial hemp.

Hemp has been legal to import and process, but until very recently, hemp cultivation was mostly illegal in the U.S.

That prohibition that ended when President Donald Trump signed the 2018 Farm Bill into law last month. The previous 2014 version of the Farm Bill created a pilot program for states that wished to legalize small-scale hemp cultivation as part of research programs.

Based on that success and on growing support for an end to cannabis prohibition nationwide, the 2018 Farm Bill legalized cultivation of hemp outright. Almost immediately, politicians began touting the crop’s potential as a miracle product and an economic boon with enthusiasm once reserved only for acolytes of hemp evangelist Jack Herer.

Marijuana legalization hasn’t hurt alcohol sales in the years since legal markets were established in Colorado, Washington State and Oregon, according to a new study from an alcohol trade association.

The Distilled Spirits Council looked at alcohol tax and shipment data before and after legalization to determine whether cannabis reform impacted sales of spirits, beer or wine in legal states.

“Simply put, the data show there has been no impact on spirits sales from recreational marijuana legalization,” the council’s chief economist, David Ozgo, said in a press release on Thursday.

“We now have four years of retail recreational marijuana sales history in Colorado and Washington state, and three years in Oregon, and each of these markets remain robust for spirits sales,” he said. “We did this study because there is a lot of misinformation circulating about the impact of recreational marijuana legalization on distilled spirits and the wider alcohol market.”

Per capita spirits sales actually increased slightly in post-legalization years, which was consistent with national trends. Sales were up 7.6 percent in Colorado, 5.4 percent in Washington and 3.6 percent in Oregon.

Via the Distilled Spirits Council.

The trade association also analyzed beer and wine sales during the same period. For beer, sales were down marginally, with drops of 3.6 percent in Colorado, 2.3 percent in Washington and 3.6 in Oregon. But again, that’s consistent with national trends, according to the study.

Via the Distilled Spirits Council.

Wine sales were mixed across the three states: Up 3.2 percent in Colorado, down 3.1 percent in Washington and up .7 percent in Oregon.

Via the Distilled Spirits Council.

The Distilled Spirits Council also used their analysis as an opportunity to plug their policy recommendations to lawmakers in states considering marijuana legalization. While the association has declined to take a position on whether to legalize, it shared a list of recommendations ranging from equitable taxes on cannabis and alcohol to THC content disclosure requirements.

Reform advocates have questioned whether legal access to marijuana would adversely impact alcohol sales, with more people opting to consume cannabis over booze. There is some research that indicates the alcohol industry is being interrupted in medical marijuana states, but more data is needed.